Finance Minister promises radical changes to lower future budget deficit

Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko, in a letter published on Saturday declared he plans to radically lower the budget deficit in 2004 and 2005 to qualify for euro-zone accession at the earliest possible date, which is 2006. Kolodko, responding to readers' questions in the Trybuna daily, did not reveal any figures, but said the belt-tightening envisaged a, "Deep restructuring of the entire public finance system. The scale of (budget gap) reduction in 2004 and 2005 will be decisively more radical than today...Proposals on this issue will be presented early next year". He said he would curb the deficit in the 2003 budget from this year's target of zl. 40 billion (5.4% of GDP)."I believe it would good to join the euro in 2006, in the understanding that we will be EU members in 2004," he said. But analysts are more skeptical, predicting that the government would probably not have the political will to muscle through such tough spending cuts. The general belief is that joining the euro is most likely around 2008. (Reuters)